Search

[Victoria Raverna]

Some quote and link that contain review or experience from other AVG users back my "AVG bashing".

from http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/applications/avg-antivirus-free-edition/412406/

I have been using AVG Free for over two years trusting it to look after my system. But being skeptical by nature, I occasionally check my system using the free online virus scanner from the Symentac website (the best virus antivirus company in the world, in my opinion, whose virus definitions are used by the Norton program). You can imaging my horror when the online scan discovered two viruses on my system that AVG Free failed to detect. One of them was the been-around-for-ages, well documented Supernova Trojan horse commonly downloaded from Kazaa.

from http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/mtarchive/norton_beats_avg_at_detecting.html

My computer has been acting funny â€" Word and Powerpoint say that all my Office files are "not available" even though they open fine if I move them to my laptop; a saved game from Serious Same 2 was corrupted yesterday â€" so I ran AVG's detailed scan to check for viruses. I switched from Norton Antivirus to AVG about 1.5 yrs ago because I got tired of Norton's belief that my computer is its plaything. AVG didn't find any viruses. So I ran Norton and it found four: Hacktool (2 files); Trojan.ByteVerify, and W32Mydoom.BN@mm.

from http://www.totalchoicehosting.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t3352.html

I am using Avast at the moment. Version 4.6 has some major improvements in resource usage. I tried AVG once but found it failed to detect several viruses I tested it with. Also AVG requires you to set up your email client to use it where as Avast just scans ALL connections to SMTP and POP ports. It is even programmed to automatically scan all traffic to most Instant messenger and P2P software.

from http://www.wilderssecurity.com/archive/index.php/t-2915.html

Norton â€" hands down. I agree with Tester on the statistical value of Virus Bulletin’s test data. AVG (Grisoft) has a mere 6% passing rate, so why bother. With all deference to Tony’s point, I can’t put Dr. Web and NOD32 in the same sentence. Dr. Web (Dialogue Science) scores less in than 50% in test submissions â€" so again, not even close. The only thing relevant in AV are ‘In The Wild’ detection rates, making VB test data the only logical source on to base performance decisions on. The only superceding issue would be program compatibility. NOD32 is the obvious winner, but for your purposes Murray, Norton turns in very respectable performance. Study results carefully - then choose.

from http://episteme.arstechnica.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/99609816/m/795001486731/r/256006996731

AVG will give false positives too often, and then fail to detect real viruses.

People discovering that they have been utterly owned while at the very same moment they were under the impression that they had protection from being owned â€" that is why people dislike AVG.

It really boils down to this: cleaning a machine using AVG will miss too much shit, thus making it a poor choice once again. Why bother with AVG when other free A/V packages rate much higher? That defies logic and reason, and if you are getting paid to clean machines, you should know better than using a subpar scanner.

Now of course like every antivirus, Avast also fails to detect some virus and give false positive on others, but from my personal experience Avast is better than AVG.

A better solution is to get one of the top rank antivirus (not Norton, but something like NOD32), but they're not free unlike AVG or Avast.

[socket]

well we buy avg licenses at my work, too... maybe i'll look into this a little further, i seem to find opinions that go either way for avg...

[jewelie]

well we buy avg licenses at my work, too... maybe i'll look into this a little further, i seem to find opinions that go either way for avg...

Can anyone confirm, WITH REFERENCES, that AVG Free definitely picks up the bricker?

I've been looking at AVGs virus encyclopedia and I can't find it in the database.

I want to be sure that I've got something that'll detect the bricker code.

[Hi]

If your worried about the DSbricker, I suggest installing flashme. Don't be scared,  :wink: that is if you are, which you might not be, you get the idea. :razz: Be careful while installing it, and your fine. Once you install it, You've got complete protection against the dreaded DSbricker.

[scootdog]

I downloaded the bricker files awhile back and AVG picks them up (I just tried with the newest version and its still working).  You have to right click on the file and scan it with AVG Free.

The odd thing is that if you scan your whole system the AVG will miss the bricker files.  So if you do the right click thing on each file you want to load on your DS it should be good.

[jewelie]

I downloaded the bricker files awhile back and AVG picks them up (I just tried with the newest version and its still working).  You have to right click on the file and scan it with AVG Free.

The odd thing is that if you scan your whole system the AVG will miss the bricker files.  So if you do the right click thing on each file you want to load on your DS it should be good.

Heh, thanks.

That's cool.  Have you got copies for the Bricker files so I could try it on my setup?  I just want to be really sure I don't go and accidentally get hit, as I don't have a flashed DS and don't really want to have to flash it to protect it ('cos, as I understand it, the original DS firmware doesn't have any recovery code in the "protected" portion of the firmware.)  I just want a reliable way I can check all NDS code before I go risk running it.

Doesn't surprise me that a full system scan doesn't pick it up -- by default AVG only scans regular-infectable files (.exe, .exe in .zips and .rars, and so on.)  As an .nds file isn't normally executable by Windows, it won't scan it unless you force it to.  I bet if you turned off the intelligent scan mode (or whatever it is called) so that a full system scan really did scan every single file then I suspect it would actually find them.

[jewelie]

If your worried about the DSbricker, I suggest installing flashme. Don't be scared,  :wink: that is if you are, which you might not be, you get the idea. :razz: Be careful while installing it, and your fine. Once you install it, You've got complete protection against the dreaded DSbricker.

Hiya.  Yes, I had been looking at flashing instructions and vids.  However, it would seem silly to risk bricking this DS-Lite to protect it against the risk of being bricked.  I couldn't possibly afford to replace the DS Lite if I hurt it, and its still pretty new (a rather nice birthday present from my ex last month.)  I wish I could be more sure that I wouldn't accidentally short something I wasn't supposed to.  I'll probably end up doing it though, after the first year's guarantee is up.

Time to admit my embarrassment.... Do you know what's crackers about this?  I can solder.  I've even a relevant engineering degree.  I regularly fix odd electrical and electronic items around the house (comes of being very poor, and having a dad who was an electrician - can't replace it, got to fix it, and no-one else to do it but me, lol.)  Years ago I even hacked the circuit board on my old old original A500 Amiga (to support a RAM upgrade, which the original circuit boards couldn't handle without circuit board hacking -- admittedly it was just cutting a track, but it WAS a very small track, and it did work out.)  I am the "local geek" that friends come to if they have any computer problems...

YET *any* hardware hacking, on items that work, STILL SCARES THE LIFE OUT OF ME.  We have games consoles in this house, and all are software moded, no hardware mods.  You'd have thought with qualifications and stuff that by now it'd not scare me, huh? The only time it doesn't frighten me is if something is already completely broken, and I'm trying to fix it.  I'm always *sooooo* scared of breaking stuff.

[Hi]

I don't blame you for being scared. I downloaded and ran fwnitro (basicly the same thing) thinking it was a simple homebrew app. Obviously, once I ran it and it said "Prepare to short slot 1" I was scared to death. But I thought at the time that turning off my ds even before starting to short slot 1 was to brick my ds so obviously I tried. Once I did, I was happy I did.

Since then, I've done it again to switch from FWnitro to flashme. I feel very confident doing it. That's why I reccomend it to people. :wink: